see the ideal of life as cooperative and nonhierarchical." Reaction Reaction to Ascension was swift and generally intense. ABC executive Alan Bergman recalled receiving an advance copy of the album prior to its release; he stated: "I listened to about five minutes... I walked into Bob Thiele's office and I can see myself holding this thing up with my mouth open. He says, 'I know, I know'... He says, 'It's going to be a classic!'" Since its release, the album has been portrayed as a turning point in the history of jazz. According to Dave Liebman, the album "blew everybody out of the water", and was "the torch that lit the free-jazz thing. I mean, it really begins with Cecil [Taylor] and Ornette [Coleman] in '59, but Ascension was like the patron saint saying, 'It's OK—this is valid.' I think that even had much more of an effect on everybody than A Love Supreme." George Russell stated that the recording of Ascension was "when Coltrane turned his back on the money." Coltrane biographer Eric Nisenson wrote that the album "signaled Coltrane's full embrace of the New Thing and its players", and that, with the album, "he finally became a full-fledged member of the free jazz avant-garde, with no turning back." A review by Wilfrid Mellers shortly after the album's release called the album "the most impressive example of 'free jazz' that has come my way. Its relationship both to jazz tradition and also to developments in avant-garde music from Varèse to Cage's wilder disciples is clear..." In a review for DownBeat, Bill Mathieu called Ascension "possibly the most powerful human sound ever recorded". Others were less positive. Saxophonist Frank Foster stated: "The main complaint came after the album Ascension. That was the turning point for some musicians who had been Coltrane enthusiasts up to that time; after that they turned off. I thought it was a little extreme, but he was always my man." Violinist Leroy Jenkins recalled having heard Coltrane's group at around the time Ascension was recorded, and recalled: "They were playing this music, screaming and ranting and raving, and, Lord - I was so drug. I said 'What?'... I dug Coltrane but I didn't know what was happening." Audiences began walking out of his concerts, as they did in August, 1965, at Soldier Field in Chicago following the album's recording but prior to its release. More recent